Raymond Weil
Company logo
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| Family-owned independent Swiss luxury watches brand | |
| Industry | Watch manufacturing |
| Founded | 1976 |
| Founder | Raymond Weil |
| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland |
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Key people
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Elie Bernheim (CEO) Olivier Bernheim (President) Raymond Weil (Founder) |
| Products | Wristwatches, timing devices/systems, fashion accessories, Swiss luxury watches |
| Website | www |
Raymond Weil Genève (French pronunciation: [ʁemɔ̃ vɛːj]) is a Swiss luxury watchmaker, founded in 1976 in Geneva. It is a family company founded by Raymond Weil (1926-2014), and now managed by Olivier Bernheim (Weil's son in law) and his two sons, Elie and Pierre Bernheim. It is one of the last independent brands in the Swiss watch industry.
Raymond Weil created the brand that bears his name with his colleague from the Camy Watch Company,Simone Bédat,in 1976 – a period of crisis for the watch industry. With the vast international network of Simone Bédat,distribution network was set up first in Europe and then worldwide.
Weil’s son in law Olivier Bernheim enters the company in 1982 after several years working in the marketing field for Heineken and Unilever, and Simone Bédat's son, Christian. Bernheim is appointed President and CEO in 1996 and has been working on the development of the brand’s worldwide presence since then.
Elie and Pierre Bernheim, Olivier Bernheim’s sons, joined the company in 2006. Elie Bernheim (co-founder of 88 RUE DU RHONE) works as a marketing director and works on the strategic development of the brand while preserving its family identity. Pierre is a sales director and travels to develop new markets.
Raymond Weil Genève first developed in Europe in the UK, before developing its distribution network worldwide, first starting with the United Arab Emirates and then the United States and India in the early 1980s. Olivier Bernheim created the Research and Development department in 1999 with the full control of the watch-design process as an objective. The R&D department is responsible for: the complication for the GMT function of the Don Giovanni Così Grande two time zones, the patented interchangeable bracelet system for the Shine collection, the moon phase complication on automatic movement of the Maestro collection.
The brand opened in 2009 its own subsidiary in the United States – RW USA Corp., thus ending its collaboration with its historic distributor. It also created RW India Pvt. Ltd. in 2010 (100% subsidiary company in Bangalore) and opened several exclusive boutiques in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai that same year. Raymond Weil Genève watches are now sold worldwide.
In 2013, the brand converted its distribution contract in the United Kingdom into a management agreement and created a subsidiary - R. WEIL DISTRIBUTION UK LTD - in April.
The company also develops its presence online. It is the first luxury watch brand to have opened a club reserved to watch-owners. The brand was also the first in the luxury watchmaking industry on location-based social media Foursquare and the first to use Fcommerce (Facebook commerce). In September 2007 RAYMOND WEIL also became the first luxury watchmaker to create its island on Second Life. The Brand's presence on Second Life and other social media channels is part of a strategic choice to adopt new channels of communication so as to be closer to clients and convey the Brand's values.
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Wikipedia